Design Resources and Inspiration

Free Fonts

https://www.fontfabric.com/

Free Icons / Symbols / Emoticons

http://endlessicons.com/

Stock Photography

https://unsplash.com/

Layouts and Mockups

https://freedesignresources.net/

Layouts and Mockups

https://graphicburger.com/

Design Trends for 2018 - Tutorials, Tips & Examples

2018 is looking to be a very pretty year for colour! Pantone has declared Ultra Violet as their colour of the year. General trends seem to be leaning towards pastels & neons with a bit of 80's nostalgia. Graphic Design, Media & Fashion are using these colours as well as some really great layout techniques to create some beautiful artwork.

2018 Trends!
+ Tutorials & Tips on how to create them for Graphic & Web Design

Colour - Ultra Violet | Pantone Tools for Designers
Colour - Pastels | Pastel Schemes for 2018
Colour - Neons & Brights | London Fashion Week Spring 2018 Palettes

Colour Channels | Photoshop

Typography - Letter Portrait | Photoshop

Illustrated Typography | Make your own fonts with Fontself 

Cropped Typography | Cutting Shapes in Illustrator

Liquid / Melted Typography

Dada Cutouts | Dada Documentary

Iconography

Letters as Images

Double Exposure | Photoshop

Double Light

Drop Shadows | HTML/CSS

Gradients | Flat 2.0 Designs  Flat vs. Depth

Duotones | Photoshop
Glitching | Photoshop - 5 different style Glitches

This list is a work in progress!

Examples

Here's some examples of these trends in contemporary media and fashion.

Colour Channels

The colour channels effect involves using multiple images (split into a CMYK or RGB colour). The images are either the same or similar.

Dreams - Silence (Music Video, 2018)

Colour - Ultra Violet

When I read about Ultra Violet being the choice for 2018 my mind went back to the hologram imagery from the film Blade Runner 2049.

Blade Runner 2049 (Film, 2017)

Double Light

Double light involves using two lightsources of different coloured lights. The most popular use of this at the moment is blue and pink neon.

Photo by Jodie Becker - unikorn.smugmug.com

Glitching

Glitching involves screen tearing, chromatic abberations, pixelation, scanlines, ISO noise and other effects you would usually see on photo/video media with a damaged signal or poor settings.

Gotta Glitch Hail Mary - livingdead.com.au

Moon Glitch Hail Mary - livingdead.com.au

Cropped Typography

Cropped typography creates a relation with images by cutting away parts to make it merge more organically.

Flourish - Poster by 83oranges

References
https://graphicmama.com/blog/graphic-design-trends-2018/
https://www.brontobytes.com/blog/100-best-free-fonts-for-2018/

Portfolio - Teddy & the Melbourne Welsh Male Choir posters & fliers

Some work I did last year to promote Teddy Tahu Rhodes concert.

Email attachment

A3 Poster

DL Flier - back

DL Flier - front

Google Fonts - a great resource for free font faces

https://www.google.com/fonts

I admit, I love fonts. I have a few favourites that I often go back to when designing for clients but I always love to find new and interesting fonts, that are a little more wild, for my own personal projects.

Google Fonts has lots of filters so you can search for the type you are looking for with ease. This is going to be a great resource for me and hopefully for you too!

While on the subject, an old favourite font site is http://www.fontalicious.com/

But nowadays they no longer have free downloads and you have to pay for the fonts. It has many unique and funky fonts, so if you are after something special, they are great.

ACG203 Graphic & Digital Imaging - Planet Air Project

One of my larger projects at Deakin Universtiy was a series of assignments based around a fictional airline. We had to choose a name, create a logo, business cards, food packaging, letterheads, plane decals, annual reports and a website. Here's some of my on screen and sketchbook work. I look back on it and see a few things I could improve but overall I was fairly pleased with how this series went at the time. (2nd year of my Bachelors degree in 2010).

State Library of Victoria - A history of books

Early last year (2013) I went on a walk by myself through the city after running some errands. It was a nice day, so I brought my camera with me and decided to go wherever was interesting. Among other things, I ended up finding a little free exhibition in the State Library about old types of books.

Full photoset here ~
http://unikorn.smugmug.com/Landscapes/Melbourne-30th-Jan-2013

Learn Typography

A nice little website about typography! Has some really good references for all those finer details that you tend to forget. The information is short and too the point and certainly not as boring as your graphic design text books that they try to make you buy in university. (but never use because TLDR;!!)

http://learningabouttype.com/index.html

Illustrated Trees

In one my assignments I was looking for inspiration from nature. I looked up some tree artwork to see how artists had interpreted nature in a simplistic or unique style. The trees made of typography are quite interesting!

Typography - To change fonts or not to change fonts? It's up to you!

Mixing it Up! - An example of multiple font faces working. Usually there's a rule saying you shouldn't use this many but the designer made it work by alternating your usual serif & sans serif fonts with more decorative/handwriting styled ones.

Keep it Simple! - In this example the same font has been used but the text is still interesting to read. Different font sizes have been used as well as alternating the colors from white on black to black on white to highlight important parts.